


The Dream of a Gull (It Was Real I Promise)

by trikstergodess



Category: The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms, The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening
Genre: Ambiguous/Open Ending, Canon Compliant, Crush at First Sight, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Light Angst, Link's Awakening from Marin's POV, Marin's POV, No Dialogue, Requited Love, Sad and Happy, Seagulls are not good singers Marin
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-13
Updated: 2020-05-13
Packaged: 2021-03-02 16:53:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,382
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24160114
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/trikstergodess/pseuds/trikstergodess
Summary: Marin had always believed there was a world outside of Koholint. Her belief is rewarded when she comes across the wreckage of a raft strewn along the beach, and its sole passenger unconscious in the sand. She had no idea his arrival would stir up so much change in such a little amount of time... nor did she anticipate his presence changing her.
Relationships: Link & Marin (Legend of Zelda), Link/Marin (Legend of Zelda)
Comments: 1
Kudos: 29





	The Dream of a Gull (It Was Real I Promise)

**Author's Note:**

> A HUGE thank-you to [EstaJay](https://archiveofourown.org/users/EstaJay) for proofreading this!

If there was anything beyond the vast horizons of Koholint, it was well out of reach. Marin had spent countless hours squinting at the distance in hopes of finding something, anything, that marred that perfect straight line that separated the ocean from the sky. She often dreamt of seeing a magical speck of an island finally appearing in that great beyond. She imagined a ship sailing into her view, a messenger to tell her that there was indeed something that lay just beyond that horizon.

Every day her search yielded nothing, yet that did not stop her from returning to look again.

Marin was sixteen (was she ever any other age before today? She did not know) when she came upon the terrible wreckage of a ship on the beach. Her heart soared. Was this the sign she had been waiting for? Was this a sign that there was indeed a world beyond this island? She stooped low to lift a small piece of driftwood and turn it in her hands. It appeared to be charred, though it had long since lost its heat to the cold waters of the sea. There was hardly anything salvageable from whatever craft the wood had been a part of. Marin stood and continued to walk. The wreckage from the ship pricked her bare feet wherever she stepped and she relished in the feeling.

Something caught her eye as she walked along the shoreline. It was green, and much larger than any of the pieces of the wreckage she had seen before. When she turned her attention to it completely, it rose and fell with a steady breath. Her heart lurched. Of course, a vessel had to have carried _someone_ \--! She took a tentative step forward, looking them over.

It was a boy she had never seen before. He was breathing, yet his eyes did not open when she took another step closer. Fear finally settled in Marin’s gut; not out of fear of the boy, but fear _for_ him. She hurried to his side and gently shook his arm. When this failed to rouse him, she shook him again for good measure before getting to her feet. She needed to get help right away. She spared him one last glance as if afraid he would disappear if she left him, and then took off running towards Mabe village. This time the pieces of the wreckage that dug into her feet were painful--it motivated her only to move quicker.

The boy was still there when she returned with Tarin, and a vice she did not realize had been seizing her heart finally released. He was still unconscious as Tarin looked him over, and then lifted him into his arms. Marin followed him back to their home, silently fretting over their new guest. Something strapped to the boy’s back fell as Tarin continued walking on the uneven terrain of sand--a sturdy-looking shield. Marin took it and carried it with her until they reached their house. It had something etched into the back of it. Marin traced the letters uncomprehending of what they said until Tarin finally had his arms free--the boy unconscious still on his bed--to take the shield and read it for her. It was the boy’s name. Marin rolled the name on her tongue. It felt foreign and she _liked_ the strangeness of it. The unfamiliarity grounded her belief that this boy belonged to an entirely different world. She was eager to speak with him when he woke.

She didn’t have to wait long. The boy began to stir only an hour later, and when his eyes finally opened they landed on Marin. She felt a fluttering in her heart as crystal blue eyes roamed over her for a moment.

And then the boy asked, voice hoarse from the sea, for a Zelda. Marin’s heart jolted with an emotion she could not name. She giggled and corrected him, and the boy blinked the sleep from his eyes to look at her properly. There was a look in his eyes when he gazed upon her face that sent a thrill through her. He was around her age, if she could guess (was she sixteen? She wondered yet again if she had ever been anything else) and carried himself with an unusual amount of confidence for someone who had been at the mercy of the sea only a few hours prior. Or perhaps it was not confidence that held his head high but a sense of duty. She could see that steel in his eye beneath that childish sparkle and wondered what sort of life this boy led in his other world. She wanted to know everything about him.

It seemed they shared a knack for curiosity and adventure. Yet where Marin’s life revolved around routine and using her imagination, her adventurer was unpredictable. In the late morning Marin would stand in the courtyard of Mabe village and tell children stories, sing songs, and pet the dogs and cuccos that roamed the village. At first the boy would join her, and listen to her as she sang. There was no mistaking that look on his face when she did and she was honestly quite surprised that the butterflies in her stomach when he gave her that look didn’t rise to her throat and choke her as she sang. But then he would leave after listening, and run off to do whatever it was he did. Marin didn’t take any offense to his leaving--he obviously had other things in his routine to do. But as the days passed she realized with startling clarity the _lack_ of routine the boy actually had. He was unpredictable and wild and so _f_ _ree_ that she almost felt jealous… Almost. He left a spark of rebelliousness in her that she was almost afraid of tapping into.

As the days passed the boy stayed out longer. Sometimes Marin would spend an entire day without seeing him. Whenever he returned to her she would sing for him, and the look on his face always reassured her that nothing had changed between them. It had taken her some time, but she could finally describe how she felt around him as love. And there was without a doubt that he loved her, too.

Her rebellious urge came to a head when he sat with her at the beach. He had let her speak about other worlds and seagulls, listening quietly. Almost _too_ quietly, as she had to ask him anxiously if he really _had_ been listening. His reassurance to her, with the pure honesty in his eyes, melted her heart. And when he asked her to help him with a part of his adventure across the island, she couldn’t help but giggle and accept without thought. The boy grinned and lifted her in his arms, tossing her in the air.

There was a moment, in the second that she touched the sky, that she felt a click in her heart. She wanted to open her eyes (but they _were_ open, were they not?) and spread her wings and fly away. She wanted to leave this island, leave this world, she belonged in the sky-! Strong arms caught her as she fell back to the earth, and the feeling vanished when she looked into the boy’s eyes and giggled. He smiled back, and then he was pulling her by the hand down the beach.

Their date was a whirlwind of activity. He showed her every corner of the island he had explored so far and opened her eyes, in some way, to the world he lived in. It was a colorful, exciting place full of adventure and curiosities. He even showed her parts of Mabe village that Marin herself had never thought to explore despite how long she had lived here (how long had she lived here?) and laughed with her as she tried new things. She regrettably got them both kicked out of Trendy Game before he had a chance to play, but he was laughing too hard as they exited to listen to her apologies. They always wandered to the next new place with their hands linked together.

They arrived at the Animal Village and Marin was awash with a strange feeling of familiarity. She was certain that she had never been here before (she never left her village and only ever explored the beach, why did this feel so familiar?) yet when the animals spoke, they regarded her with starstruck expressions. When she was taken to the walrus, she even spoke with familiarity. She didn’t remember ever interacting with this creature before. Yet waking him with her voice made sense, did it not? She chose to stay a while longer in the village to try to understand her feelings. The boy accepted her choice and visited her often as he passed through.

Perhaps it was their day together that stoked the fire that had always burned low in her soul. Marin felt a yearning for adventure again, days later, and said goodbye to the animals of the village with a smile and a wave. Despite her lack of weapon, the monsters that plagued Koholint never raised theirs against her. Marin wandered the island aimlessly (she did not have a map like the boy) until she reached the base of the mountain. She had to crane her neck to look up at the massive egg that rested at its summit. Clouds obscured her view of its upper half. Marin began to climb.

Shadows followed her as she made her way up but she hardly noticed. She came to a stop at the base of the egg and ran her hand against the shell. This close, the Wind Fish felt even less real than when she had told the adventurer its tale. It was too outlandish to imagine such a powerful creature lay dormant in this egg, no matter how grand the egg may be. The shell felt cold under her hand. She had no name for what she was feeling, so she did the only thing she knew to do and began to sing. For a moment, she felt the tiniest of tremors under her hand. Yet before she could utter another note, sinister laughter and monsters’ paws grabbed her by the arms and dragged her down the mountainside away from the egg. Marin hardly had a chance to scream as she was whisked away to a broken bridge and left there without ceremony.

For a brief moment of hysteria Marin considered flying away. She banished the thought. The bridge was far too high up to dare jump across to safety. Marin clasped her hands and brought them close to her heart as if in prayer. A part of her knew that she wouldn’t be there forever. She only had to continue hoping and believing in her hero to find her.

And it was as if he had heard her prayers, or fate had thought kindly of her today. Her hero appeared on the opposite end of the bridge and began to make his way across. He seemed just as surprised as she was, standing in a stupor across the gap. Marin called out to him. Her adventurer blinked, readied the tool in his hand, and fired.

She felt the breeze of the hookshot passing her by, and then he was rocketing at her, arm extended. He knocked the wind out of her as he caught her, but she hardly cared. She felt his body, sturdy and strong against hers, his arm wound tight around her waist. Marin clung to his shoulders in that moment, relishing in the warm feeling of his embrace as the wind blew her hair and his cap wildly behind them. Marin was reluctant to let him go when they hit the crate the hookshot had embedded itself into.

There was something in his expression when he looked at her that Marin couldn’t place. It wasn’t an expression that she liked. He looked almost sad. His gaze was still filled with love, however tainted it was by his other emotion, and Marin couldn’t bottle her feelings anymore. She opened her mouth, hoping to finally reach a verbal understanding. But fate was no longer working in her favor, and what she had been about to say died on her lips as Tarin appeared from nowhere to call out to her. Irritation flared through her. She smiled anyway and told her hero they would speak again. Uncertainty and sadness filled the boy’s expression, but she was already turning away to follow Tarin home. Marin spared him one last glance before running off after her father figure.

She didn’t see him after that moment. Maybe it was sad. Marin returned to her routine and waited for her adventurer to return, but a heavy weight on her heart told her it was likely he would not. She chose to ignore it and sang instead, though her melody felt slower. Somber. It felt foreboding. The children of the village feared her song and played further away. The skies above were starting to turn grey.

Music filled the air two days later. Before her adventurer appeared, such a thing would have brought Marin immense joy. She would have clapped and danced and sang along. Yet the melody brought her no happiness. Her heart beat fast in her chest and threatened to burst forth. Her stomach clenched. Marin felt as though she was on the bridge again. Something big was happening, and she didn’t understand why it unsettled her so. As the music faded, her anxiety only worsened. Marin stood in the square, hands clasped over her heart, and breathed.

Only an hour passed when the music began to play again. It was louder, more rich, and it filled her very soul. Her heart ached painfully and she shed a tear as she opened her mouth and began to sing. The clouds made way for the blinding sun. Marin closed her eyes and felt her consciousness fade, fade, fade away. She could no longer hear the children playing, or the dogs barking. She could no longer hear her own voice as she continued to sing.

Faintly, Marin heard the cry of a seagull.

**Author's Note:**

> This isn't quite the return to writing that I was aiming for, but it felt good to get the creative juices flowing. Link's Awakening quickly became one of my favorite games and I'm so happy that Nintendo made the decision to completely remake this game with fun and exciting new graphics. I always thought the ending was so sad... and admittedly this all started with me wondering what Marin was thinking in her final moments. She was singing when she and the rest of the island vanished...  
> Was all of this a dream for her, too?


End file.
